Getting Clients to Buy Into Biometrics

Increasingly, hand readers are helping end-user organizations complement or eliminate key and card systems. Find out where the technology is in widespread use to better understand what market niche opportunities are available to you.

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Eliminating Need for Keys, Cards

While keys alone are not cost prohibitive and dramatic price reductions have lowered the capital cost of card credentials, the true benefit of eliminating each of these tokens is realized through reduced administrative efforts.

For instance, a lost key or card must be replaced and reissued. Just as there is a price associated with the time spent to complete this seemingly simple task, when added together the overall administration of a key or card system can be costly.

Hands and fingers, after all, are not lost, stolen or forgotten. They also don’t wear out or need to be replaced. Also consider that biometrics is simple to administer and easy to install and maintain. Replacing card readers with biometrics, in many cases, is a simple unplug-plug-and-play operation.

Hand geometry and fingerprint readers, especially, allow people to access buildings and rooms quickly.  Plus, it is easy to control threshold levels, such as tightening access control in a utility plant while easing the authorized level at a spa.

Old Hands at Using Biometrics

Installing security contractors can look no further than the biometrics applications at college campuses for helping create future prospects.

For many years now, countless students have used biometrics to gain authorized entry to residence halls, dining halls, recreation centers and other facilities. This everyday use on campuses across the United States has made biometrics commonplace for students who view it as a convenient security tool to be trusted rather than equipment to be feared.

Biometric hand readers make for especially practical applications at colleges and universities where enrollment is constantly is flux.

According to Bill McGee, manager of card services at the University of Georgia (UGA), eliminating rekeying upon lost or stolen keys is vital for larger institutions. For instance, with 800 people living in a dormitory, rekeying would be a cost-prohibitive necessity as well as a logistical nightmare, McGee says. So UGA has adopted the use of biometrics to supplement the electrified door system in its housing structures.

“We also have cameras on the doors. By adding a hand reader, we go from an access control system to a security access system,” McGee explains. “We feel that this is an important attribute. By simply putting one hand reader at an entrance, an organization can turn that door into a security system in its simplest form at a low cost.”

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